The Time Of my Life
by Lara Cox
Summary: "I managed to stay in office for 10 years. I was here TEN whole years. I can't believe how quickly they have passed…." Mac's thoughts in her very last night as the leader of the free world.


Author's note: HI! I'm actually in Buenos Aires now (the capital of my Nation). I came here in a four-day trip and practically "held hostage" my cousin's computer because I simply HAD to write this…. By the way, "Sex and the City"'s fans might recognize one line I simply had to use.

Well… I hope you enjoy this short story and review it!

Warning: It was a bit rushed (since I was using someone else's computer) so, please… try to be understanding.

Summary: "I managed to stay in office for 10 years. I was here TEN whole years. I can't believe how quickly they have passed…." Mac's thoughts in her very last night as the leader of the free world.

Disclaimer: I don't own Commander In Chief…. It doesn't matter how much I love it.

**The Time of My life**

**Year 2024. January 19. Very late at night. White House. **

"Madame President", "President Mackenzie Spencer Allen", "The Allen Administration", "Mac Allen's White House"…. All of that ends today…. After 10 years of running The United States of America it's time for me to leave the White House so another administration can take over. Saying that I have "Mixed feelings" about leaving the Presidency doesn't even begin to explain how I really feel…

In the residence, there is a family dinner going on. The twins came to visit us specially to share our very last dinner in the White House. As I'm sit at the table and I look around…. I notice how much my family has changed in the last 10 years:

Horace, who is 27, isn't alone… he is with his boyfriend Dean. I'm happy that he finally came out of the closet… he is so much happier now that he found his true love.

Becca… well, she is not longer "Becca Calloway" now she is Dr. Rebecca Prado Md. She married one of Tony Prado's sons after graduating of med school… I couldn't be happier. Everybody knows that I want grandchildren with all my heart. I really want to be a grandma, but that's not happening for now… Rebecca and her husband are taking their sweet dam time! They say they are too busy with their careers to start having kids at the moment, and I understand exactly what that is like… After all Rod and I didn't have children until we were both 30.

Amy it's still my little baby. It doesn't matter that she's 17 now… she will always be my baby. You should now that, just like a young woman at the beginning of my Presidency, Amy is also "Brown Bounded". She will go to Brown University next spring and she has a boyfriend…. Yes, a boyfriend. Can you believe my baby has a boyfriend? She is dating "little" Tommy Bridges…

Of course, there is someone missing at my table: My beloved mother Kate… She passed away right after I won the second election… it was such a terrible lost. We were all naturally devastated and it was incredibly hard to move on… God, I still miss her so much. At least she was able to enjoy a long and happy life and I know she died being a happy woman.

Rod is actually the same, he is still the same dependable and loyal partner he has always been. We are still madly in love with each other. It's amazing how, after 30 years of marriage he still takes my breath away… Actually, the only good thing about not being The President anymore is that I'll be able to spend most of my time with him. I know it's been hard for him staying at my shadow…. But he should know that if he hadn't stayed always one step behind me I would still be University Chancellor. I could accomplish everything I accomplished in the last 12 years because I had him by my side. I need him more than I'm willing to admit. He and I are a team… we laugh together and we mourn together. Victories tasted sweeter and falls were softened because we shared them with each other. After we leave our "Glorious Prison" at Pennsylvania Avenue 1600, we are moving to our new beach house in Santa Monica. My career is over…. And Rod's career got eaten by mine… but we'll take a Sabbatical year to enjoy each other… to be together like we couldn't be in this last decade. Then… who knows what the future might bring?

I remember talking about the future, it was the time I decided to run for President…. When I decided that my team deserved another four years. It was right after I prevented a nuclear war……

**_FLASHBACK. Year 2014. _**

_It had been a very hard couple of days. But the nightmare was over now… and the result had been good. I had prevented a disaster. Right after the Press Conference I gave when the crisis was over, I took my husband to the Oval Office… We were alone, and I simply said solemnly… _

_Mac- I want to run, Rod… _

_Rod looked at me amazed and very happy. _

_Rod- really? _

_Mac- yes… really… I know it's wrong for me to say this… but I'm proud of my self… I did something pretty amazing in the last 48 hours… _

_Rod clucked… He was happy that I was feeling so good._

_Rod- you are right to feel that way… and I'm incredibly proud of you too… _

_Mac- I simply don't want this to end yet… I want to be President for as long as I can… _

_Rod nodded in agreement… He was glad, but he also thought that my sudden change of heart about running in the next elections was too good to be true. He asked in disbelief… _

_Rod- And you really want this? You don't feel guilty about Becca anymore? _

_I shook my head. Which surprised Rod a lot… _

_Mac- Don't get me wrong… I want her to be incredibly happy. I still want her to flourish. But I realized that she will flourish anyway… She'll go to college in a year and she will have it all… she will have every opportunity in her hands…. She'll have a great future and a promising career in front of her. Me, on the other hand… _

_I paused, not knowing very well how to explain what I was trying to say. Then I added…. _

_Mac- Rod, This is as far as I get… _

_That statement caught Rod off guard. He hadn't thought about that… _

_Rod- what? _

_Mac- It's just hit me that this is the last job I ever going to have… The truth is, I reached the peek of my career… Once I'm finished with the Presidency I'm pretty much done… I will leave the White House and became just a woman who once made history…. I'll be nothing but a page in the history books… I'll never be able to do something as important as this and when everything is over I'll be left with nothing but the memories of the time I made the difference… Do you see now why I need to stay at least another term? I can't even imagine how my life will be after the White House without… _

_I paused again. I was very close to tears, I couldn't go on. Rod was clearly overwhelmed. He had no idea I was already thinking about my life as a Former President. And frankly, he couldn't tell me that I was wrong. He simply held me and said… _

_Rod- Please Mac… I promise you that everything will be ok… you just worry about having the time of your life while you are here…. You and I will worry about the post- White House life later… if we are lucky we have 10 years to figure that out…_

**BACK IN THE PRESENT. **

I suddenly feel very sad and nostalgic… I excuse my self and leave the table. Nobody protests because they all know very well what I'm about to do….what I need to do… I have to say goodbye of the Oval Office.

I enter slowly in the Oval for the very last time…. I take my shoes off and walk around for the very last time… I sit behind my desk and caress the wood for the very last time… I see a book over my desk; actually it's only the first draft of a book meant to be in every bookstore in six months…. The title says it all: _"A Woman Commander In Chief. The Presidency of Mackenzie Allen"_. There other things over my desks: a few drafts of my official portray… and pictures of a few places where The Allen Presidential Library could take place. It's up to me choosing one of those places. It's time for all those things now…. It's time for the book… it's time for my portray… and it's time for the library… All indicates that my time here it's over…. As I look back, I believe that I succeeded… I did my job the best I could and I managed to keep it for as long as I could…. The fact that my "Accidental Presidency" became "A Term of my own" in the year 2016 was my biggest accomplishment. I managed to stay in office for 10 years. I was here TEN whole years. I can't believe how quickly they have passed…. But I did have the time of my life in this Oval Office. So many things happened here…. So many decisions were made… so many mistakes…

As I look around the Oval I can't help thinking about the people outside my family who had some kind of influence in my Presidency and in my life (for better or for worse)…

Warren Fitzgerald Keaton, my rival who became my Vice President for a while. A very good man. He was very smart, honest and with a great heart. It was an honor working with him. Too bad he had to leave before anyone could see very much of him…. I had him in my team for such a short time that he didn't really have so many opportunities to shine and show us what he was made off. Oh, Warren… it feels like we hardly knew you.

Richard "Dickie" McDonald. A charming young man that was in my staff for a very short time. Wow… I hadn't thought about him in a long while. I have no idea what happened to him after I fired him…. The truth is, I know he is a very good person deep down and I think it's a pity that it didn't work out. He simply didn't fit in my team…

Vince Taylor…. My good assistant who became my best friend. Really… he meant a lot to me and I was devastated when he died victim of AIDS a year ago… I hope he knew how important he was for the administration. But I also hope he knew how important he was to me. May his soul rest in heaven, surrounded by angels.

Kelly Ludlow, my Press Secretary. She's been such a good friend. Believe it or not, she is the last one standing. From my original team she is the only one left…. Her loyalty is a treasure to me. I can't thank her enough for staying by my side all this years. I know that great things are waiting for her… and love it's waiting for her also… certain male reporter called Steve it's just waiting until it's the right time to propose. He hasn't been able to do it so far because she was Press Secretary and she just couldn't get romantically involve with a member of the White House Press Corp. But that ends tonight… From tomorrow Kelly will be free to marry the reporter she loves.

Jim Gardner. My former Chief of Staff, and my biggest mistake. I still can't believe I didn't see the truth about him sooner… I was devastated when I learned by the hard way what he really thought about me and that he was the one who gave Evan Hutchings my resignation letter. It crushed me because I really believed in him… what a pity he wasn't what he seemed.

Nathan Templeton, Speaker of the house and my opponent in both elections. What can you say about someone like Nate? An incredible man, no doubts. As estrange as this might sound… He was my biggest enemy and my "brother in arms" at the same time… we went through so much together. As we hated each other we loved each other… we worked against each other and we worked together. It's been an honor having such a rival… I'll never forget him. I was crushed when he died right after the second Election Day. "Of a heart attack", said the doctors. "Of shock", said Jayne Murray, who saw his face when I won the elections for the second time.

With every name on my list it becomes more evident: A lot of people shaped my Presidency and made it what it was. I wasn't alone for the last 10 years…. Actually I was everything but alone.

My thoughts are interrupted by Rod, who enters in the Oval worried…

Rod- Are you ok, honey?

I nod and smile sadly.

Mac- yes… It's just… hard…

Rod- I know…

He comes closer to me, hugs me and gives me a soft kiss on the lips. I remember something… so I step back and say…

Mac- you know? I have a surprise for you…

Rod, exited as a child, smiles widely and asks…

Rod- Sex in the Oval Office?

I laugh in disbelief, and shaking my head I say…

Mac- no… but it seems that someone couldn't take that idea out of his head in ten years…

Rod- Well… Horace did it here…

I put a disgusted face. I knew that, but I never had wanted to talk about it. I just pretended that it never happened and Rod had gone along with that… until now… I say very upset…

Mac- Do you realize that we had managed to go through almost 10 years without you bringing up that incident?

Rod- sorry…

I walk towards my desk I pick up my surprise for Rod… I hand him the first draft of my book. He looks at it surprised…

Rod- oh my God! It's almost finished…

I nodded, smiling happily… and said…

Mac- Look at the first page…

Rod did what I told him. In the First page there was the dedication of the book… it said: _"To all the people who made of the last 10 years the time of my life. But to one of them in particular: Rod Calloway, my beloved husband who always had my back. Without his support my Presidency wouldn't have been what it was…. My life wouldn't have been what it was. Thank you, my love." _Rod was moved… He didn't know what to say, he was totally speechless… I grabbed him and kissed him urgently.

Later that night, I was watching him sleep in the Presidential bed for the very last time and I started thinking again about the people in my life. I had so many different kinds of persons. There were people who opened me up to new things and others who were safe, old and familiar. People who brought me a very unexpected place, and people who made that place a home. There were people who brought me very far from where I started, and others that brought me back. But the strongest influence I had in my life is the one that came from my self. It was with a lot of courage, intelligence and self confidence that I manage to go through this last ten years… I learned that knowing and loving your self it's just as important as allow other people get inside your heart and your life. The truth is that, whoever you are and whatever you do, the most significant person you'll ever have in your life is yourself. But if you are as lucky as I was and you find someone that loves you just as you are and always has your back… well… everything else just falls into the right place.

THE END

Please, review… tell me what you thing!


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